Saturday, January 04, 2014

Republican Civil War

According to Joe Killian in the Greensboro News&Record, Conservatives for Guilford County, a tea party-inspired political action committee, has been "a divisive presence in Guilford County Republican circles for several years. The group has supported primary challengers against sitting Republicans that it said aren’t real conservatives, butted heads with Republican Party leadership, and traded barbs with Republican stalwarts like Greensboro City Councilman Tony Wilkins, Guilford County Sheriff BJ Barnes and former Guilford County Commissioner Billy Yow."

Therefore, Conservatives for Guilford County is holding its own candidate forum on Monday to which not-conservative-enough Republicans running for U.S. Senate or U.S. House in the 6th Congressional District are either not invited or were invited but declined to come.

House Speaker Thom Tillis, the leading Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, ain't coming. Neither is the leading candidate for Congress, Phil Berger Jr., who's running to replace Congressman Howard Coble along with a sizable collection of ... also rans.

Greensboro City Councilman Zack Matheny, Berger's most credible rival for the 6th Congressional seat nomination, was blunt in his refusal to attend the Tea Party dust-up: “That group has made it a point that they don’t support me. Some of their members say and write bad things about me constantly. So even if I didn’t have another event, I doubt my team would recommend I attend anyway.”

Jesse Helms's old operative Carter Wrenn is working for Bruce VonCannon, another rival to Phil Berger. VonCannon feigned ignorance about the candidate forum: I know nothing about it, VonCannon claimed, which means, we guess, that he ain't courting the Far Right (which also raises the question about what sort of campaign advice he's getting from Wrenn, who is fully capable of surprising us on a fairly regular basis).

Wrenn told Joe Killian that he thought a primary death-match between the Tea Party and the Republican establishment was salutary for the future of the party.

Maybe. Whether a chair-flinging, bare-knuckled, eye-gouging, balls-to-the-walls primary helps or hurts November turn-out for Republicans remains to be seen. And whether Carter Wrenn thought it was a good idea or not, he's got it coming straight at him.

11 comments:

Lee Haywood
said...

I can assure your readers that ALL candidates were invited and,as always, C4GC intends to run a fair and professional forum. If Zack Matheny is so adverse to criticism then how will he perform and make the tough decisions in DC? Apparently his campaign strategy is one of avoidance.- Lee Haywood

These are fun times indeed. RINO (Republican in Name Only) are rapidly turning towards the liberal mindset. As the Republican Party dies, many of its members will be future supporters and contributors here on Watauga Watch. There is little difference between an anti-gun Phil Berger or Skip Stam and Kaye Hagen. They are pretty much one and the same.

Since I'm this site's number one most liked personality, I'd like to request a thread. Please entitle it: "How Will Republicans Service Their Liberal Masters". Liberals on this site will be free to name the millions of ways they will break, bend, mutilate, and make life miserable for weak-kneed Republicans. You might actually get a plethora of responses to this thread. LOL!!!! I'd really like to see what the liberals have to say in terms of their wish list of laws and regulations they will throw at the cowards too afraid to fight (RINOs). How about it?

Redneck Repubs - it didn't take long!!!! Not all "Rednecks" are going to agree with you on that, but nevertheless, we're are getting somewhere. But I want to know how, specifically, you plan to make them pay. What are your pie in the sky wishes to really stick it to them. I'd like for the party that will soon not be a party to hear what you have in store for them. And don't worry about giving up too much info. At this late point in the game, you won't see a reversal of fortunes - the Repub thugs are incapable of fighting back against a well organized, committed adversary (liberals). So have at it - and we want specifics!!!!!!

Come on folks!!! This is a rare opportunity to stick it to faux conservatives.

Some categories:

1. What would you do with taxes2. Gun Control - where do you want gun control to end up3. Energy - everyone drive hybrids maybe. Or high taxes on coal companies4. Global Warming. Cap and Trade maybe? How and to what extent?5. Fairness Doctrine in reporting?6. Changes to Constitution. New Constitution or changes to existing one?7. Education - what changes will you make to education?8. Civil issues. Where do we go from here on gay rights, abortion, marriage, etc?

Don't limit yourselves to the above. You can mention anything! This is not a wish or a hope; it will soon be reality. Liberals will have a clear avenue to pass pretty much anything they want to, so start thinking about it!!!!!!!!

USS Rodger Young has indeed gone off the deep end, and I think it's because of the election her husband lost in Blowing Rock. She raves and raves over at the Watauga Conservative, and we all ignore her. Now she's raving here. Nobody talk to her!

Nobody talk to me? Oh come on - I am simply asking what you would do, pie in the sky, with regulations, law-making, taxes, and such. This is not a trick. I'd really like to hear what the end game is. Simple questions. Why not some simple answers? This is a fun exercise in what ifs.

Your right, I may be a bit crazy though - too many fist pumps at the Wellness Center day before yesterday when my 75 year old training partner did 5 miles (He lost 50 pounds in 2013)!!!!!! Old folks give me hope.

about

J.W. Williamson was the founding editor in 1972 of the Appalachian Journal: A Regional Studies Review, which he edited until July of 2000. He has taught college classes in Appalachian history, cultural politics, and literature, and he has lectured widely on the pop-culture history of "Appalachia" in the American consciousness. His books include Interviewing Appalachia, Southern Mountaineers in Silent Films, and Hillbillyland: What the Mountains Did to the Movies and What the Movies Did to the Mountains. He has won the Thomas Wolfe Award given by the Western North Carolina Historical Society, the Laurel Leaves Award given by the Appalachian Consortium, a special Weatherford Award given by Berea College, and the Cratis Williams-James Brown Award given by the Appalachian Studies Association.

The views expressed on WataugaWatch are solely those of J.W. Williamson or individual contributors and are not necessarily shared nor endorsed by the Watauga County Democratic Party nor by any other adults of sound mind in this or any other universe.